Computers in Comics

Computers have not always appeared in comic books. Of course not. Comic books were first printed in the 1930s and there were no computers in the 1930s. So when did computers (and "thinking machines") first appear in comics?

Ultivac by Jack Kirby was a computer in a 1957 Challengers of the Unknown story and it came to life as a robot, but that was not the first computer in comics.

Maybe the computer that Wonder Woman used in a 1948 story (detail shown below) was the earliest? I'm not telling!

This matter has been researched by Dr. Andrew Davison and you can find out the answer by reading that gentleman's thoughtful article over here.